In Death Valley, a Technicolor Season

[Boomer]

In Death Valley, a Technicolor Season

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/03/04/travel/escapes/04bloom.html

CROSSING over the Jubilee Pass on Route 178, drivers expect to encounter the monochromatic wasteland of Death Valley National Park unfurling before them. But these days they see something very different: Technicolor plains of primroses, larkspurs, poppies, verbenas, lilacs, orchids, phacelias and other wildflowers. It raises the question of whether Death Valley even deserves its name.

The same rains that have brought mudslides and destruction in one of California's wettest seasons on record have also brought an early and spectacularly kaleidoscopic spring to Death Valley.

"We were shocked when we saw this," said Lew Friedman, a visitor from Old Chatham, N.Y., as he stood before a fragrant carpet of gold sunflowers that curved over the desert floor toward the Black Mountains. "It certainly doesn't seem like Death Valley," his wife, Jackie, said. "It smells like a floral shop."

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http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/03/04/travel/escapes/04bloom.html

[ClintonTyree]

1. If you've ever been there................

in mid-August, the statement... "It raises the question of whether Death Valley even deserves its name", would never be considered. The dessert is beautiful in the spring, when it's cool and the rains come. But in the summer when the temperature maxes out in the 110-120 degree range, you'll think you've found hell on earth. There IS a reason it's called Death Valley, believe me.

[NNadir]

3. I know. I've been there, done that. n/t.

[Up2Late]

2. Cool, Thanks

I hope they have some Nature film crews out there. This type of thing only happens a few times a century.:bounce: